Told in detailed and intimate language, each person Walker interviews helps personify the kind of man and artist DJ Screw was, no matter what name you might have known him by.The neighborhoods of Fifth Ward, Fourth Ward, Third Ward, and the Southside of Houston, Texas, gave birth to Houston rap, a vibrant music scene that has produced globally recognized artists such as Geto Boys, DJ Screw, Pimp C and Bun B of UGK, Fat Pat, Big Moe, Z-Ro, Lil’ Troy, and Paul Wall. That’s a really rare quality.”ĭespite such an early death, his legacy remains intact. But really, for me, it was about the kind of person he was, and how people still talk about how he made them feel all these years later. “What really attracted me to the story of DJ Screw is that you have somebody who’s incredibly good at what he did, and everybody who was around him reinforces that idea. “I wanted to underscore how special he was to people because that’s what made me want to write the book,” Walker said. While the book’s narrative ultimately ends in tragedy, readers are also exposed to the beauty, brotherhood, generosity, and passion for music that dominated DJ Screw’s life.īut perhaps what distinguished Screw most, according to Walker, was his sense of duty and responsibility to take care of the people around him. Those were the people I wanted to interview the most.” For some, it was tough to open up others had just never been asked. “This is a very personal story for a lot of people who knew Screw and loved him very much. “Some people didn’t want to talk or had reservations, all of which I completely understood,” Walker explains. Partly because, as Walker says, he often encountered resistance from family and friends who were still experiencing pain from Screw’s passing in November of 2000. At 49, Walker spent more time on building the story of DJ Screw than anything else he’s ever worked on. Sixteen years in the making, A Life in Slow Revolution is Walker’s life’s work. And while Screw was a groundbreaking hip-hop artist, he was also a skilled pianist who could play Chopin by ear.Ī Life in Slow Revolution is an amalgam of firsthand accounts from the people closest to DJ Screw, from family and close friends to members of Screwed Up Click (the popular hip hop collective he founded). DJ Screw was revered for his innovative “chopped and screwed” deejaying style, a new kind of approach to remixing music that slowed down the tempo of a song and then used techniques such as skipping beats, scratching records, and stopping time to create a “chopped up” version of the song.
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